Florida minority students: Highest SAT scores, lower standards?

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Florida minority students: Highest SAT scores, lower standards?

Minority students, especially Hispanic seniors, have the highest SAT scores in the nation. (Shutterstock photo)

Minority students in their last year of high school in Florida have the highest SAT testing scores in the nation, according to a recent report from the state College Board. Overall, Florida Hispanic high school seniors outperformed other minority students across the nation in areas of writing, mathematics and reading, scoring 29 points higher than the nation in critical reading; 13 points higher in math; and 20 points higher in writing.

The Famuan reports a number of Florida education initiatives have helped provide educational opportunities to minorities in the state, often offering free college education for well-performing students.

Minority students and low performance benchmarks

With minority students, especially Hispanics, performing so well on standardized testing, concerns continue to circulate regarding the recent proposed changes for Florida performance benchmarks.

According to a new strategic plan purposed by the Florida State Board of Education, new education benchmarks would be implemented based on race and ethnicity. The plan would set higher performance benchmarks for Non-Hispanic white students and Asian-American students and lower benchmarks for Hispanic, Native American and African-American students.

The fact that minority students are surpassing others in the realm of performance may support critics’ views on this new education plan. A number of organizations have spoken out against the strategic plan calling it discriminatory, and high ranking political figures have also spoken out against the purposed plan.

Senator René García, Chairman for the Florida Hispanic Caucus, said in a recent letter to the Education Board, “The Florida Hispanic Caucus has been supporting legislation that raises the bar for all public school students and ensures academic proficiency regardless of race or gender.”

“We would just like to ensure, as duly elected representatives of Hispanics, that those (new performance) benchmarks are not tied to race or ethnicity,” he said.

Senator García’s sentiments are shared by Governor Rick Scott who released a statement saying, “The standards set by the State Board must clearly and sincerely acknowledge that all students are capable of performing at grade level regardless of their race or background and that our ultimate goal is to ensure there is no achievement gap in Florida’s education system.”

He added, “With this in mind, I would ask the board to more completely incorporate this recognition into its strategic plan so that we can focus our efforts on helping every student to achieve the highest level of success.”

Dominique Moody, correspondent to the Famuan, believes “Florida’s high school graduates are raising the bar, and with a plurality of them choosing to attend a state university, Florida can expect to see a raise in the state’s economy in upcoming years.”

Source : VOXXI - http://www.voxxi.com